


Saved or.....?

by Lionessinthedark



Series: Sherlock's and John's challenges [2]
Category: Sherlock (TV), Sherlock Holmes BBC - Fandom
Genre: Episode Fix-It: s03e03 His Last Vow, Post-His Last Vow
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-08
Updated: 2015-04-08
Packaged: 2018-03-21 21:33:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,133
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3705387
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lionessinthedark/pseuds/Lionessinthedark
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After Jim left Sherlock and John in the factory...What happened then?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Saved or.....?

**Author's Note:**

> This is Post His Last Vow. Some of the events in this part have happened in the previous part of Sherlock's and John's challenges. I do not own these characters. They belong to Arthur Conan Doyle and BBC.

There were the sounds of sirens in the harbour area. But it was London...and the sound of sirens wasn’t unusual.  
10 men in black combat equipment and fully armed surrounded an abandoned factory building. 2 helicopters were hovering the building too.  
The men went in.....and came out again giving signals to one of the helicopters. It landed and Mycroft got out of it ducking his head and his hair and clothes moving in the wind.

“They are in here, Sir, but I’m afraid that it is too late”

Mycroft found his telephone as he went in through the door. He stopped and looked around. It was so much worse that he had expected...seeing those to bodies: Sherlock bound to a table and his back a mess...just as bad as in Serbia or worse and John.....oh my.....crucified. And the blood...

Medics were carefully removing the nails and had put John face down on a stretcher and were about to do the same thing with Sherlock. IV administered universal O rh.-negative blood bags were attached to John’s and Sherlock’s necks.

Mycroft called Mary and Lestrade: "We have found them...but I’m so sorry. No pulse to be detected. We were too late..."

Mary answered back in the telephone: “Don’t panic Mycroft.....If their heads are still on their necks, no lethal trauma to be seen on their bodies, no limbs missing.....give them plasma or blood anyway. If the blood on their body still is red and seeping, then they are not dead even if you can’t detect a pulse. My John can make himself in to a catatonic trance and I suppose Sherlock would be able to do something like that knowing martial arts as well. Their bodies would be able to function with only 3 liters of blood. They might risk losing a finger or a toe, but they can survive!”  
_______________________  
Sherlock and John were hurried to a secret hospital-facility just outside London and Mary was fetched by a helicopter and landed on the field near the hospital only 30 minutes after the helicopters containing John and Sherlock.

Mycroft was waiting: "Mina?"

"She is at your parents"

"Good"

"How are they?"

"It’s not that good. We can’t get them out of the catatonic trance...and we don’t dare to sedate them or put them on the operating table in their state of trance. So right know they’ve just received blood and we have made body-scans. But they are alive!"

Mary insisted on speaking to the doctors....telling that John recently had told her about his abilities to get into a trance, that could protect his body from the circulatory shock of pain and blood loss. He wouldn’t feel a thing, so they could operate on him, just monitoring his heartbeat and oxygen level and blood pressure like a normal anesthesia. She wasn’t quite sure if Sherlock had totally the same ability but by the look of him she would think so. She was a nurse after all.

1 hour later one of the doctors came to find her and Mycroft.

“We have finished the operation on John. He only needed a few stitches on his back. It is more welts than actual wounds on his back so he will heal fine probably without any severe scarring. He didn’t get so many toxins in him and he’s got quite a big amount of antidote as well. The contusions in his right hand were soft tissue injuries. No bones broken, but there are pressure-fractures in his left hand. We have fixed it with a small Hoffmann-devise as we are unable to put plaster cast on his open wound. We can’t be sure there are no nerve damages because of the nails, but as he managed to stand on his feet and not hang in his arms, the damage ought to be small. We just need to get him out of that trance.”

Mycroft: "And Sherlock?"

"He is it much worse state. He has apparently been wounded before. There are traces of torture on his body. You, Mr. Holmes has told me about it and of course the wounds after his gunshot and the later re-operation as complications after that occurred. He has taken the worst part concerning back injuries and his flogging has given him open wounds: Skin damage and muscle damage. Until now we have both glued and stitched the wounds using a new method and we’ll try...on your request Mr. Holmes...the new stem cell treatment, which would leave him with fewer scars. He has never the less gotten a much bigger amount of toxins into his body through his open wounds and I’m afraid that his readings are not as stable as John Watson’s. I think we could make him more stable if we could wake him up, because in that case he would be able to communicate with us."

Mary turned her head away. It was not supposed to be like this. And Sherlock had again taken the Lion's share. Oh my....it was so complicated.

Mary: "Mycroft....we’ll have to figure out those wake-up words. Think......."  
__________________________  
But it was Mary who found out by a coincidence. John was in the hospital bed still in trance lying on his stomach and she kissed him and whispered: “You are safe now. You both are safe now. Sherlock is alive....”  
And that was the words...John’s eyes snapped open and he sighed. ”And how is Sherlock?” he asked.

The doctor in charge answered: “Alive...but more affected. He’s got more toxins in him and apart from the injuries on your hands, his injuries on his back are more severe than yours”

“Yeah” said John: “Again he took the major part of the whole calamity. When we found out about the toxins I had to do something to save his life...”

“But crucifixion?!” Mary said

“Nah...it couldn’t be a real one. I had cuffs on my wrist so no nails through there. People.....thank God....have a wrong picture of crucifixion. I just had to calculate that I could be standing on my feet. It was actually a choice between the devil and the deep blue sea, Mary: No nails.... no antidote. I could either survive having nails through my hands or we would both have died because of the toxins. Sherlock would have done the same thing for me, Mary!”

“I know” (but she wasn't sure if she felt that it was all right what John had done)

John was put in a wheel chair and transported to Sherlock’s bed, where he whispered in Sherlock’s ear: “John is alive”  
______________________  
8 hours later were Sherlock’s readings normal. The doctors had retrieved the sort of antidote from John’s blood and had managed to synthesize a similar antidote and as soon as it was given to Sherlock, he rapidly recovered, but yet not totally.  
______________________  
A week later Sherlock and John were found lying on to sun beds, carefully lying on their bandaged backs, covered in blankets on a terrace at Mycroft’s estate in the countryside just outside London. It was better having the two men there as the nature of their injuries were rather....hm...unusual. Too many questions would be asked if they were anywhere else. Mary and Mina were by turns here and in their home. John wanted to see his daughter but on the other hand he needed some rest too. And having a nearly one year old daughter to crawl all over them and giggle and dribble...even though both men loved her dearly... it was too much all of the time, when they needed to recover, especially from the toxins. They were healing well. The stem-cell-treatment with daily injections seemed to make wonders on both men. When their bandages were changed every 2nd day the nurses could register a very rapid healing rate, even affecting Sherlock’s old scars from Serbia and Johns old wound on his shoulder and his old wounds from the prison-camp. It was worth the pain from the injections and the pain from removing the old bandages.

Sherlock was asleep as John was asked to come and see Mycroft in his office. Mycroft had not been around except from in the hospital, but now he was here. John walked very slowly into Mycroft’s office. Mycroft was not sitting behind his desk but in an armchair and he rose as he saw John entering.

"Tea?" and Mycroft pointed towards a table beside another armchair.

"Yes, thank you"

"Hm....I really do not know what to think of you, John Hamish Watson. I must admit that I’m impressed!"

"Oh...with what?"

"The extent of your commitment in my brother showed by the art of your wounds," and Mycroft pointed at John’s hands, "what you were willing to endure to save his life!"

"Oh Mycroft.....don’t think I can walk on water or turn water in to wine. It wasn’t a crucifixion!"

“It looked like that to me”, Mycroft shivered (Mycroft shivered!?)

"No...I was not hanging in my arms, the nails did not do that much harm only put through soft tissue, well nearly only soft tissue and actually I think that Sherlock took the lions part in that factory."

"No, he didn’t. I have seen and heard what happened! I do not know the reason, but it was recorded...all of it, and was sent to me recently. You took your fare share.....even offering to get shot! For that...hm...feat...I’m forever grateful. But you confuse me!"

"Oh..."

"I really do not know what to think about you, John. You have deluded everybody...including me....about your past!"

"Any specific time?"

"Oh, come on John, about your knowledge of Aikido ........about your Behatar-training in that prison camp. That you are in fact to be considered a lethal weapon!"

"Are you afraid of what I might do!? I’m a bloody doctor too! I DO NOT KILL PEOPLE AT WHIM! You even managed for me to keep my SIG when I actually should have given it back to the military when I returned wounded from Afghanistan and I think that it is a bit more lethal...at least at a distance. So what is the difference? I’ve not killed anyone using my skills as a Behatar-fighter since Afghanistan. I have no intention of using it to harm anyone unless they are a threat to those I hold dear...including your brother! And even you!"

Mycroft looked at him:"If I had known about your skills back then when we first met I’m not sure that I would have let you near my brother. I know how provocative beyond all limits he can bee and had I known about your skills....I might have considered you to dangerous!"

"Oh come on Mycroft. I’m still the same man! And believe me. When I found out what Sherlock had done for me...in Serbia...what he had endured for me...and Mary...there were no doubt that I would do anything to keep him alive, even if the result would be my own death. Just for you to know! So if you don’t mind I would like to take the pressure of my sore back and return to my sun bed and my blankets!"

Mycroft was just looking at him.

"What now?"

"As you know, John, we are not...hm....without financial means."

"Yeah...I wondered why Sherlock needed a flatmate to share the rent."

"He needed a flatmate and as it turned out he got a friend too, because he had told me to keep away and told me he wanted to manage on his own. Actually you wouldn’t have had to take that job at the hospital...he had money enough to cope or he could have asked me. I would gladly have given..."

"That is exactly why I had to take that job!"

Oh...I see. But now, knowing the skills you’ve got, I’ll make you an offer. Skip your job. Help Sherlock solving his cases and I’ll pay you the same salary or even more. He’ll need you..."

"Are you offering me money so I’ll stay as his friend?!!!!"

"No, by all means. I’m giving you a salary for being his assistant, so you wouldn’t have to worry about your finances while you are doing the job you like the most....solving crimes with my brother! Think about it...could you at least promise me that?"

"I’ll think about it, but I’m a father now. This time in the factory was a close call. I have responsibilities, you know!"

John turned around and left.

Mycroft sipped his tea and wondered: "Are you a devil or an angel, John Hamish Watson? And what about your wife?"


End file.
